Train Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Gut Brain Connection, Wellness That Works with Jewel Zimmer
In this episode, I sit down with Jewel Zimmer — certified brain health trainer, microbiome researcher, chef, former chocolate company founder, and the Founder and CEO of Juna — for a conversation that reframes everything you thought you knew about wellness.
Jewel built Juna the way most wellness founders build their best work: through a personal crisis that the medical system couldn't adequately answer. Severe postpartum anxiety sent her looking for root causes — all the way to the Amen Clinics and Stanford — and what she found changed not just her health, but the entire direction of her life.
The answer, it turned out, started in the gut.
Today, Juna is a science-backed supplement brand built specifically around female physiology, and Jewel is on a mission to help women understand something the wellness world doesn't talk about enough: 90% of your serotonin is produced in your gut. If your gut isn't healthy, your brain isn't healthy. And if your brain isn't healthy, everything else follows.
We talk about the gut-brain axis, what it means to actually train your brain, Dr. Amen's Four Circles framework, why sleep is the biggest longevity hack of all time, and the 1% better philosophy that Jewel says is more powerful than any trend.
Tune in!
Key insights:
90% of serotonin + 50% of dopamine are produced in your gut — not your brain
The gut-brain axis and vagus nerve: how your microbiome talks to your mind
What it means to train your brain as a certified brain health trainer
Dr. Amen's Four Circles: psychological, physiological, social, spiritual health
Theta state: why right before sleep and right after waking is your most powerful window
Gratitude, journaling + meditation as the simplest, most profound brain interventions
Sleep as your biggest longevity hack — what your glymphatic system does overnight
The 1% better philosophy: compounding tiny habits into total transformation
A tour of the Juna line: gut therapy, detox drops, Smart Burn, sleep gummies + the microbiome test
Being a founder as a spiritual practice
Dive deeper with us!
The conversations don’t end here, they ripple into real life.
Ways to be Supported:
Follow @jewel_zimmer + @juna.world on Instagram
Shop at juna-world.com — use code SHINE for 20% off full-priced products
Read Jewel's Substack Only Better at jewelzimmer1.substack.com
Ways to Support the Show
Join ourWe Shine Well community on Substack to: Dive deeper with with guided prompts, resources, and community conversations with fellow listeners and guests to expand you
Connect with us on Instagram at @weshinewell
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